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Your Legal Journey Starts Here - Join Our Private Client Team as a Trainee Legal Secretary!
Trainee Secretary Department: Private Client
Responsible to: Private Client Partners/CMK
Job Purpose: Office based role providing comprehensive secretarial service and support to fee earners to maximise their availability for legal work and to facilitate the efficient functioning of the department in accordance with the firm’s policies, procedures and work instructions.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
1. OverallÂ
• Support the firm in its intention to continually grow and develop the practice in all areas.
• Strive to provide excellence of service to all clients.
• Take a pro-active approach to the work carried out for clients.
• Be alert to any problems being experienced by clients and react positively to these.
• Take responsibility for noticing client care problems and for solving these.
• Work towards clear objectives that support fee earners in the twin aims of generating and delivering client work.
• Take part constructively in the performance review process and undertake agreed training and development activities.
• Adhere to office and compliance procedures including health and safety.
2. Daily Duties
• Setting up clients on the system, opening new matters and assisting fee earners with obtaining the necessary identification documentation from clients.
• Timely and accurate completion of varied documentation and correspondence in accordance with the fee earner instructions and appropriate department styles.
• Prompt and courteous handling of external and internal telephone calls.
• Prompt and accurate noting and delivery of messages written and oral to the appropriate person.
• Liaising with clients on behalf of fee earners to arrange meetings, booking meeting rooms and assisting generally with diary management.
• Assisting fee earners with administration as required such as form filling and preparing cash entries on the system.
• Attending to the electronic registration of Powers of Attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and liaising with the OPG on behalf of the fee earners when required.
• Following the team’s procedure to carefully handle and store principal deeds including Wills, Powers of Attorney and Title Deeds and recalling these from storage when requested by fee earners.
• Liaise with Support Manager to help plan allocation of work.
• Scanning incoming mail, printing outgoing mail and collating this for posting.
3. General • Effective use of the firm’s IT systems to maximise efficiency.
• Comply with the Firm’s quality system.
This job description describes main duties and responsibilities and is not exhaustive. Job content, duties and responsibilities may be changed from time to time after mutual consultation. Employees are expected to comply with any reasonable request from the Firm which may be outside their usual job remit.
SKILLS REQUIRED/EXPECTED
• Fast and accurate keyboard skills
• Methodical approach to work with good organisational skills and able to work to demanding time scales
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to develop positive working relationships within the team and to act professionally at all times.
• Good attention to detail
• A strong team worker
• The ability to learn and develop an in-depth knowledge of the department’s work and processed
